How To Travel And Have Fun on A Tight Budget​01 Aug 2017

​It’s really difficult to think about going on vacation if you know you’re on a tight budget. This is one of the main obstacles we face when we think about going on vacation and its expenses. In such situations the urge can be felt on your stomach, one part of you telling you to risk it and the other to stay and save for 'later'.​Let me tell you something! There are many other ways you can travel around and have fun on a tight budget. There are activities that you can experience without having to sacrifice your budget and still enjoy traveling.​If you ever wonder if it’s possible to have fun on a tight budget, the answer is yes! Most of the cities offer a lot of entertainment, for all kind of ages. The secret is to explore the local places and be an observer of what's going on in the city that you're visiting; one of the best strategies I use is to meet locals who are willing to share their knowledge with you or show you around, if you're not a social person then exploring on your own can be another alternative.​

​​Cultural Shows​Another possibility is to enjoy cultural shows performed around the cities for free, there is always something going on around if you look for it. The strategy that I use to get to know is by asking my dearest friend GOOGLE: I try different words and sentences; make sure to add the name of the city with other word combinations such as free shows, no entrance fee shows, local shows,etc. And if you know the language of the place you are visiting is more effective to search in that language. Otherwise you can find events in page such as Meetup, couchsurfing or Internations, these communities are mostly organised by travelers and people willing to meet other fellow travelers, besides finding great events you may also end up making new friends and contacts.​

​​Local Concerts​There are different kinds of concerts around that are free of charge, the most popular are performed on the most known streets. There are many local bands that go to different places around their own city to perform and promote their CD’s to the audience. There are also concerts organized by students: these concerts will let you discover new talent and it also contributes to the motivation of the students. It’s a win-win situation; you’ll get to experience nice concerts for free and in return they get to have your support, in other words you'll be supporting the beginning of their career as musicians. ​

​Cultural events​When it comes to culture we think about the many rituals done by the respective churches, but we forget that there are other interesting events organized with religious purposes that we as visitors can also enjoy. Even for the non-religious people, like me; it’s enjoyable to experience these events, especially if you like photography. There are many parades that you can enjoy and that give you the feeling of how the culture perceive their main religion.

Sports​For the active people there is plenty of options when it comes to finding sports to do in the place that you're visiting, usually each place has their most popular sports that the community practices often, the key is to find out which one it is by asking locals. Another option is to do hiking trips (this option is also suitable for the non active people), when going hiking is better to do it with other people if you're inexperienced, because you may get lost, but if you still want to venture on your own there are offline apps such as maps.me.If you're visiting a big city and you think that you can't go hiking, you may be mistaken! Most of the big cities are surrounded by natural spots or natural parks, as I already said Google can help you in finding these places or some local advice. For the people that don't like outdoors, there is always the option to visit indoor facilities that you can enjoy. These facilities are easier to find, because most of them are well advertised; visiting any information booth will do the work.​

​These are only a few things you can do and still enjoy traveling on a budget, the possibilities are way more than the ones I mentioned, it all depends on what you enjoy doing. You can adapt these strategies to all the other adventures in other places around the world you wish to visit. Traveling doesn’t have to involve spending a lot of money; there are many other sides of the cities that you can enjoy without emptying your pockets.